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Devastating earthquakes that occur around the world can trigger subsequent earthquakes near
fracking waste-disposal wells, according to new research.Columbia University researchers say
shockwaves from major earthquakes in Chile in 2010 and Japan in 2011 triggered smaller temblors
near disposal wells in Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado.A series of much-stronger earthquakes occurred
near those same disposal wells six months to 20 months later.

Nicholas van der Elst, a Columbia geophysicist and the lead author of a study published
yesterday in the journal
Science, said the Chile and Japan earthquakes provided an early indication that the
disposal wells were pressuring existing faults to eventual breaking points.

“They were like advance warnings,” van der Elst said.

The study raises new questions about disposal-well safety. Ohio has 191 disposal wells, where
14.2 million barrels of fracking fluids and oil and gas wastes were injected last year.

Fracking is a process in which millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are injected
below ground to shatter shale and free trapped oil and gas. A portion of the fracking fluid bubbles
back out, along with ancient salt water contaminated with different metals, including radium.

Ohio’s disposal wells drew public scrutiny after state officials linked earthquakes in
Youngstown in 2011 and 2012 to a nearby disposal well that has since been closed.The Youngstown
quakes were different, van der Elst said, because the ground started shaking soon after the
disposal well opened and began injecting wastes.

The disposal wells near Trinidad, Colo., Prague, Okla., and Snyder, Texas, had been operating
for years, he said.

The 9.1-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Japan in March 2011 triggered a 4.0-magnitude
earthquake in Snyder that same month. That was followed by a 4.3-magnitude earthquake there in
September.

The Feb. 27, 2010, 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile was linked to a 4.0-magnitude earthquake in
Prague and a 2.0-magnitude quake in Trinidad, both of which occurred that same day.

Three 5.0-magnitude earthquakes were recorded in Prague in November 2011. A 5.3-magnitude
earthquake shook Trinidad in August 2010.

Ohio’s state seismologist, Michael Hansen, said that so far, he’s observed no links between
distant quakes and this state’s disposal wells.

“We always know about the big quakes that happen around the world,” Hansen said. “I don’t recall
ever seeing any close correlation here with that.”

After the Youngstown quakes, state officials changed regulations governing new disposal wells to
include seismic monitoring and limits on how deep they can be drilled.

Teresa Mills, an anti-fracking advocate with the Buckeye Forest Council, said the Columbia study
emphasizes the earthquake risks that disposal wells pose.She said the state regulations offer
little protection. “They don’t know where all of these faults are in Ohio,” Mills said.